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Can anyone please suggest a naval miniature wargame, WW2 or present/near present day setting? Best of all would be one with a simpler rule set and/or relatively inexpensive miniatures. Bonus bonus points if the Royal Navy is a playable side.

My girlfriend has had an interest in model making in the past, and a family history and interest in the Royal Navy, so I wonder if we might be able to share my interest in miniature wargaming through something like what I am seeking, and I think it would do me good to branch out beyond sci-fi too!


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EDIT: Currently looking up Victory at Sea. Any comments on what that is like to play?

Shipwreck.

Great game.

I like the sound of its easy rule set. Does it require miniatures of a specific scale?

Nope.

Victory at Sea is what I would have suggested, mainly because it's the one I've heard the most discussion about. Sadly I haven't played it myself so I can't really comment.

For models you might want to take a look at GHQ's 1/2400 stuff, they've got modern, WWII and even WWI if you fancy giving that a look.

As you are UK based, the Navwar shop is the place to look.

I recommend starting with a copy of General Quarters part 1 -- WW2,. which is a pretty simple game and it only costs £4.50.

http://www.navwar.co.uk/nav/default.asp?MMID=103

The ships are 1/3000th scale. A large warship will be about 2 to 3 inches long. They cost at most £1.25 and a lot of the cruisers and so on are cheaper.

Many WW2 battles involved relatively small forces.

Navwar do just about every ship from every nation so you can do loads of WW2 stuff.

For present day, there's always Harpoon if you're feeling ambitious. Of course, while I haven't played it myself, I would imagine that it's a rather complicated game. And while it can be played with miniatures, I would imagine that they don't really do much since most of the combat takes place at beyond visual ranges.

Victory at Sea is not a bad little game, house rule to allow pre-measurement (otherwise the minefield rules make no sense, and its easy to fire ranging shots anyway).

Rulebook is infuriating, the rules are simple but you will need to make some ship ref cards to track damage, I always forget the Special Actions as well.

Its a simplified game for sure, but plays pretty well and copes with multiple units on each side pretty well. If you get it grab "Order of Battle" as well, the extra profiles are nice but it seriously upgrades the game.

Play is interlaced turns, Alternating movement then alternating shooting followed by aircraft.

Model scale doesn't matter, I use the GHQ models as they are nice with a good range. all measurement is to a 'point' - the rulebook makes a royal hash of this with a fire arc template thats wrong.

Core rules are only some nine pages, you also get a campaign system and 18 odd scenarios in the basic rulebook.

I like it, its under rated, plays well and feels reasonable in the logic. turning mechanic is a bit odd (you measure everyithng from the centre of the model but turn from the stern, and turning feels slow as well, you will need to make a template as well..)